Sixteen lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly have dumped the state’s ruling People’s Democratic Party, the platform on which they were elected for the state’s opposition All Progressives Congress, potentially reigniting the political storm that shoke the state for more than a year.
Speaker Martin Amaewhule announced the collective defection during plenary yesterday, citing what he called deep “division” within the PDP.
The move aligns Amaewhule’s bloc with the presidency at a time when the crisis between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and allies of Nyesom Wike shows no sign of easing.
Amaewhule told colleagues that joining the APC was now his “new political direction.”
He praised President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, saying the President had shown “love to Rivers State.
Amaewhule Leads 16 Lawmakers To APC
During plenary, Amaewhule said: “Distinguished colleagues, APC is my new party… I am happy to be a member of APC so we can join forces with Mr President.” He claimed the PDP had become too fractured for the lawmakers to remain.
According to Amaewhule, supporting the President’s agenda was now a priority, even if it meant abandoning the party that brought them to office.
The defectors are known to belong to the bloc loyal to Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the FCT and former governor of Rivers State, whose strained relationship with Governor Fubara has produced months of political battles.
Their departure adds another layer to the leadership dispute involving parallel claims by Amaewhule and Edison Ehie, now Chief of Staff to the governor.
Court rulings have repeatedly shifted control of the Assembly between both camps.
Wike Responds: ‘They Are Free To Go’
Reacting in Abuja, Wike said he was not surprised by the lawmakers’ decision. He told journalists after inspecting a road interchange that the PDP’s internal fractures made defections inevitable.
His words: “It’s unfortunate. Everybody has the right to make a choice. The party is fully factionalised… When a party is factionalised, they are allowed to leave.”
Wike noted that about ten lawmakers had remained in the PDP, and he plans to continue working with them.
He also insisted he had not left the party: “I’m still in the PDP… I have said to the party, put your house in order.”
He warned that failure to resolve internal disputes would further damage the PDP at state and national levels.
But this is not the first time Speaker Amaewhule and his co-travelers in the House have made a show of defection to the APC. In 2024, they defected as well, flying flags of APC in a show of a new alignment.
But no sooner did they realize they could lose their seats in parliament and hand over near-complete control of the governance and political structure of the state to Gov. Fubara by their defection, did they depose to an affidavit in court that they remained in the PDP, and merely flying the party of another party did not constitute a legally acceptable defection.
President Tinubu then brokered peace between the warring factions, that appear now to be unravelling no sooner than it started.
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